Rumor: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Power Play?
Rumor has it that Paul Thomas Anderson’s follow-up to There Will Be Blood might be an adaption of Peter Bart’s novella Power Play, which Paramount acquired in 1998 for producer Robert Evans to develop. Anderson’s official fan site cigarettes and redvines has now even picked up the rumor, which I heard from a source last week. Let me be completely clear: I have not gotten any official or even unofficial word that this is actually Anderson’s next project (ie for now take it for what it is - a rumor), but it does seem to have a history of truth.
The story follows a forward thinking Native American casino owner who decides to take on Las Vegas, and enters into a power struggle between established casino owners. When the project was first announced, Evans named Anderson as director and Jack Nicholson as a potential star.
“I’ve got P.T. Anderson very excited about adapting and directing it. Before he directed Boogie Nights, he covered the gambling terrain very convincingly with Hard Eight. I’m also giving it to Jack Nicholson, who is perfect for the main role,” Evans told Variety in 1998. “It’s an extraordinary story. The largest gambling entrepreneurs are not Trump or Wynn or Kerkorian — they’re the Indians. They operate the most profitable casinos in the world and most are not even full-blooded Indians — they can be one-eighth and still control the tribe, the land and the casino. If they made the worst deal in selling Manhattan for $24, they’re making up for it with a weapon more lethal than bows and arrows.”
It is impossible to write a story about this project without noting that the sale of Power Play was the subject to huge controversy in the late 90’s. Bart was accused of creating the 86-page novella in order to circumvent rules which prevent Variety reporters from being seduced by Hollywood while covering the beat. Basically, the idea was that Bart wrote a book to sell a screenplay. In 1998 Variety reported that Michelle Manning at Paramount Pictures had acquired the rights to the novel written by Bart, which was submitted under “a pseudonym to avoid any potential conflict of interest.”
A screenplay was later discovered with authorial credit to Leslie Cox (the maiden name of Bart’s wife), “Based on the novel by Peter Bart” and dated September 1996, two years before the sale of the book. The whole situation smelled like fish. Basically, Bart at one point ran Paramount with Evans, and writing a script certainly seemed like a conflict of interest. As is the whole idea of the trades if you ask me: Something like 90% of advertisements in trade papers like Variety come from the same industry they intend to cover. But I digress. Bart was suspended after Amy Wallace wrote about the incident in Los Angeles Magazine (you can read about the incident on Slate.com).
2008 Oscar Winners Rejoice
2008 Oscar Winners Rejoice
The Kodak Theatre press room was full of smiling faces last night, as the 2008 Academy Award winners basked in the glory of their accomplishments.
Taking best picture honors was the Coen Brothers’ hit film, No Country For Old Men - which was thought to be a front-runner from the event’s onset.
Meanwhile, French actress Marion Cotillard took home best actress for her work in La Vie En Rose, while Daniel Day Lewis garnered best actor accolades for his riveting role in There Will Be Blood.
The complete list of 2008 Academy Award winners is as follows:
BEST PICTURE
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
WINNER:No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood
BEST DIRECTOR
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jason Reitman, Juno
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
WINNER:Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
BEST ACTOR
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
WINNER:Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
BEST ACTRESS
WINNER:Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Laura Linney, The Savages
Ellen Page, Juno
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
WINNER:Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
WINNER:Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James…
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson’s War
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
WINNER:The Counterfeiters (Austria)
Beaufort (Israel)
Katyn (Poland)
Mongol (Kazakhstan)
12 (Russia)
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
WINNER:Ratatouille
Persepolis
Surf’s Up
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
WINNER:No Country For Old Men
Atonement
Away from Her
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
There Will Be Blood
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
WINNER:Juno
Lars and the Real Girl
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
The Savages
BEST MUSIC (SCORE)
WINNER:Atonement
The Kite Runner
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma
BEST MUSIC (SONG)
WINNER:Falling Slowly - Once (performed by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova)
Happy Working Song - Enchanted (performed by Amy Adams)
Raise It Up - August Rush (performed by Jamia Simone Nash and Impact Repertory Theatre)
So Close - Enchanted (performed by Jon McLaughlin)
That’s How You Know - Enchanted (performed by Amy Adams)
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
WINNER:Taxi to the Dark Side
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
War/Dance
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
WINNER:Freeheld
La Corona (The Crown)
Salim Baba
Sari’s Mother
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
WINNER:The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Transformers
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
WINNER:There Will Be Blood
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country For Old Men
BEST ART DIRECTION
WINNER:Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
There Will Be Blood
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
WINNER: Peter and the Wolf
I Met the Walrus
Madame Tutli-Putli
Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)
My Love (Moya Lyubov)
BEST SHORT FILM
WINNER:Le Mozart des Pickpockets
At Night
Il Supplente
Tanghi Argentini
The Tonto Woman
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
WINNER:Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Across the Universe
Atonement
La Vie en Rose
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
BEST MAKE-UP
WINNER:La Vie en Rose
Norbit
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
BEST SOUND MIXING
WINNER:The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country For Old Men
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers
BEST SOUND EDITING
WINNER:The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country For Old Men
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood
Transformers
BEST FILM EDITING
WINNER:The Bourne Ultimatum
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Academy Awards To see the entire gallery from the 2008 Academy Awards (February 24) - !
Konami Says Paul Thomas Anderson is Circling Metal Gear Solid? NOT TRUE!
Collider talked to someone involved with the production who has confirmed that Paul Thomas Anderson is NOT involved. My guess is that Saito meant to say Paul W.S. Anderson, who has a history of video game movie adaptations. The original news story follows:
Get out of here, Konami! At a press conference for this summer’s Metal Gear Solid 4, Konami’s Aki Saito, who’s apparently hands-on with the Metal Gear feature film adaptation, told a Kotaku reporter that 1.) the franchise’s feted creator, Hideo Kojima, will not be directing the movie version and 2.) director Paul Thomas Anderson is a possibility…
Regarding to potential directors, Saito says, “Paul Thomas Anderson is interested.”
What would The New Yorker say if this became a reality? Saito also communicated how carefully Konami, the vid game’s publisher, is handling the adaptation, much to fans’ satisfaction, and expressed a certain weariness over Hollywood’s video game flick graveyard…
“Often Hollywood adaptations have the original game creator involved at the beginning, but somewhere along the line they fall out of view. This is why it’s very important for us to carefully pick the studio for this project.”
PTA handling a grandiose spy action film would be bananas and make for a highly unforeseen and no doubt controversial follow-up to his masterpiece, There Will Be Blood. Venturing into pipe dream land, I’m not sure if I’d rather see Tarantino’s Grand Theft Auto (the Internet fantasy fave for Rockstar’s franchise at the moment) or this. Not sure why Saito would just throw PTA’s name out there if there wasn’t some truth to it.
Brief MGS synopsis: Metal Gear Solid follows Solid Snake, a retired soldier who infiltrates a nuclear weapons disposal facility to neutralize the terrorist threat from FOXHOUND, a renegade special forces unit.
Rant: This Is Absolute BS. Nation’s Critics Now Calling There Will Be Blood Best Movie Ever.
Editors Note: The following rant includes some very strong language. Please be advised…
You know those fake dipshits who voted for Bush (once, twice, whatevs) and now try to explain and express their sorrows about the Iraq “War” and the economy’s collapse to you? Yeah, my new keychain from Supreme says “F**k ‘Em” for a reason. But, yeah, those dipshits are not half as bad as all of these movie critics who are now jerking off Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood now that it’s safely tucked-in on DVD.
What a bunch of fucking cunts. Srsly.
How many articles do I have to read from “new-and-old-media” movie critics about why the general public doesn’t give a flying shit about movie critics anymore (the most unproven, self-obsessed employees in the Western World)? Nobody gives a shit because even when a film is as fucking fantastically great and earth-shaking as TWBB, these mocha-choking-assholes don’t have the guts to call it out until they can watch it “four times on DVD” and even then it’s still an “A- or B-minus.”
What is the deal? I understand why a pathetic college-educated, money-sucking wanker like Gregory Kirschling at Entertainment Weekly now calls TWBB a “masterpiece” after numerous viewings, after dissing it the first time. His first impression? The film was fucking “weird” and “with little of the flash or exuberance or life of PTA’s previous epics, Boogie Nights and Magnolia.” Are you fucking kidding me? I saw TWBB once and automatically knew it was light years beyond No Country For Old Men in every way. I smoked a huge joint and realized it was practically impossibly great! My editor Peter, who did not smoke a joint at all, agreed (seriously, our TWBB discussion is why I write for Slashfilm and love this site). When I saw the film two more times, I realized that the movie totally killed the very notion of God. Was I wrong? I honestly don’t care.
I have not read one “movie critic” discuss such implications, but that is what the public wants. They crave controversial, bizarre-even, opinions about today’s films. Not PR-pleasing bullshit. You want Pauline Kael? I don’t. She wasn’t fucking Mary, okay? I want new light. I don’t want Lester Bangs. No more death. I want young bloods who say what they think and then go party the night away.
I love CHUD (the site, the movie a lil’ less); but Devin’s review, while well worded, doesn’t come clean about what this film means and is about. Do we need PTA to get his bib dirty? I’m glad that Devin doesn’t refer to Plainview as “evil” as so many assholes have, but c’mon. The DVD is packaged like a Bible for a reason. This movie is about the end of religion in the face of American progress, as ugly as that concept is. It’s about being a man and facing off in a world full of supernatural, batshit “man in the sky” bullshit and how that can drive said man crazy, then and now. Get out of here Ghost! It’s about sons and fathers, when the father can’t have a son and how he looks at the world with that in mind. It’s about killing a God that doesn’t exist. It’s a fucking great movie and possibly in the top 10 ever made.
Critics, grow some huge balls. Do drugs. The world’s best scientists are (Adderall, so ‘04 btw). Live life, then watch movies. Don’t shrink in a chair. Get crazy. Come up with weird theories about new movies for the helluva it. Like Quentin Tarantino says, if you back up a cool review up with examples, they will come and cum. Stop pretending like you are immortal in the face of mainstream mediocrity. The Internet is now your pimp. Show some skin (not literally, please never), but get freaky.
TWBB is a fucking masterpiece and it shits all over No Country For Old Men. That is ALL. Either you said it then (LIKE WE DID AT SLASHFILM) or you are an idiot. Every scene of TWBB is worth 1,000 words. Here’s to the new generation.